Unfortunate
by Lelka
Summary: Eren and his friends graduate high school and decided to apply for a job that could turn his life into a fantasy or his worst nightmare.
1. Chapter 1

being grateful and kind.

I put my arms at my sides and tried to look as thankful as possible, and pretty innocent and clumsy. Like how everyone thinks of Armin around the school. Some cheap-ass wuss. "Hehe, thanks, Mikasa. I can always count on you to save my ass, huh?" It sounded kind of natural. She smiled somewhat genuinely. I saw heads turn away and people start to ignore me again. I then turned to the group of girls and apologized as sincerely as possible. But it was hard. I wanted to know who humiliated me. I could feel my blood boiling. Jean… That horse faced bastard…

I then started walking with Mikasa. She looked calm and didn't even make eye contact with me when she spoke, "So, who pushed you, Eren?" She could always tell when something was wrong. What had happened. I was a real klutz, but not to such an extent where I would fall backwards into a group of girls carelessly.

"Jean…" I muttered. I hated him. He kept trying to make my high school life a living nightmare. Of course, it didn't work. I had better things to do than get pushed around by that gay-ass piece of horse crap. Jean wasn't gay or anything, but I could just feel that he had a thing for Marco. Their bromance was just too real for me to not think that either one of them was gay. But then again, Marco wasn't interested in any sort of romantic relationship with anyone, as he had stated before, and Jean was obviously head over heels for Mikasa. It made me wonder what sort of process went on in his brain. Couldn't he see that Mikasa didn't like him? And that kicking my ass would just make his "dream girl" hate him to the bone? I guess not.

"I see," she responded. We continued to walk through the hallway and eventually found Armin and his He-Man haircut.

Immediately he began talking about what he was going to do after he left high school. It was all really lame stuff. I just kept nodding, my face still rosy red from the entire hallway incident. I felt a jab in my rib cage and slammed myself into the lockers in shock. Armin was looking at me with an indistinguishable expression. He looked half angry and half concerned, his blue eyes burning through my skin and into my soul.

"Eren, you look upset," he noted.

"I'm not upset," I retorted. I could feel my ears turn warmer. Lying. Now Armin would know for sure that it was a lie. His smart ass could figure if I'm lying even if this red ears bullshit didn't exist.

"Cut the crap," Armin snapped back. "Seriously, you can tell me." His voice quickly got softer to assure me that I could trust him with whatever was bothering me.

Mikasa tugged Armin and I from behind and steered us down the stairs while we kept talking. Mikasa didn't stop Armin from asking me anything. She was an orphan that my parents took in after her parents were brutally murdered in a human trafficking event. Apparently, young asian girls were popular in illegal child pornography. Disgusting pedophiles. But I still didn't know what Mikasa was to me. She wasn't in any way my sister. Or at least, I didn't think of her like that to an extent where I did think full on that she was my sibling. I wasn't really sure, but I could date her if I wanted to and not feel awkward about it at all. It was like dating your best friend that you knew forever. I really wasn't ever sure how to feel about Mikasa.

She steered me and Armin to the front of the school faster than we realized. I still hadn't spoken to blondy here about anything, not even related to me being upset. I sat on the flat stone railing of the front stairs and Mikasa and Armin made themselves comfortable on the steps. I didn't even think that any of the staff or employees or really anyone cared about us sitting right there in the front of the school and eating lunch.

Finally, I decided to say something. There had been an unsettling silence for too long between the three of us. "That punk ass horse face-"

"Jean?" Armin asked.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. He pushed me down into a group of girls. And-"

"And Mikasa saved your ass," he said. Armin knew of course. Almost every single one of my complaints that had to do with Jean, also included Mikasa saving my butt from BS I don't even start, most of the time.

After that, we stopped talking about the subject. Instead we started eating our last lunch on the school grounds. I took out of my backpack a small paper "Bath and Body Works" bag that's bottom was a little damp. I took out of the paper bag a plastic container filled with white rice and on top of that, a piece of salmon covered in shoyu sauce. I could only decipher this as Mikasa's cooking. When I looked in her direction, I just saw her smile at me and open her own container with the same thing. I grinned towards her.

Armin took out his own meal which was rice, breaded chicken, and some tofu on the side. And a fork. Mikasa had packed my lunch today, and my utensils so I struggled with my chopsticks. What was it with her and chopsticks? I got that she was Japanese and all, but she really took it to a new level with the chopsticks. This wasn't Hawaii where pretty much everyone knew how to at least properly hold chopsticks. We weren't on an isolated island in the middle of nowhere with stupid ideals like tiny waist girls with half of a nut shell to cover up each boob. I don't know if I was being racist by thinking that, but it felt true, in a way.

We all ate in silence, as usual. I guess it was something we picked up from a stupid little kid's book back when we were in third or fourth grade when we read a book about princesses and manners. That would also be the year that Mikasa would be taken in by my family. Armin and I pretended to follow to the rules for a day, like always be polite, help others, and some other junk that I didn't care about. And then there was no talking while you ate. I guess that one sticked and either Mikasa always knew to do that, or copied us and learned.

Once we were all finished eating, we took out snacks that we considered an exception to this rule, not by conversation, but by simply doing it all the time. Snacks that we could gamble with like skinny choco biscuits and soda flavoured hard candy. We also had watermelon slices that were a little warm, and squid chips that were a little crushed. But we started to eat them all anyway, passing around the bag of chips, and putting the biscuits into our mouths like a stereotypical farmer and a piece of grass, I think, except the biscuits disappeared, and I'm sure the piece of grass wouldn't get eaten by the farmer.

"So," I said while I had four choco biscuits shoved onto one side of my mouth, sticking out a little, "What were your senior quotes?" I'm sure that Mikasa and Armin could make out what I said, and it was shortly made clear that they understood.

Armin swallowed his watermelon piece and replied clearly, " Mine was, 'Knowledge is power, so if you don't know a whole lot, I'm sure even I could Judo flip you, and I don't even know Judo.' I tried to incorporate the message not to do stupid things, and make it humorous." We all laughed a little.

"Mine was, 'Roses are red, violets are blue, y'know violets are violet, right? I can't believe you,'" Mikasa told us. We all laughed. Mikasa wasn't any type of lyricist nor very talented in any type of poetry, but I guess she thought that her Valentine's day mockery was so funny, it just had to be her senior quote. She didn't believe in Valentine's day because she thought that you could proclaim your love to someone any day, and it would still be as special, and that Valentine's day was just some "random as hell" day chosen to be a day to show your affection to someone.

The day was going really well, and I shared my senior quote stiffly. Neither one of my friends laughed.

"Eren, that's actually a really good quote to leave behind you. You really took this seriously, huh?" said Armin. I denied it.

"Nah, I just was just pumped with anger or adrenaline or something. I did write it down after a bunch of idiots just decided to go on calling me a titan-shifter again," I tried to sound reassuring just to make sure that Mikasa wouldn't get pissed off or anything like that. I wouldn't know if she would have gotten pissed off because our conversation was interrupted…

Interrupted by Jean.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, what, first I have a horse face and now I'm an idiot?"

I snapped my head around and gaped at what I saw. Jean and his group. His whole friend group.

"What are _you_ doing here?" I asked. I didn't want Jean to be there. He was such a pain that I didn't want to deal with at the moment. I shifted myself just incase I had to jump up and smash his face in and shove his backpack down his esophagus, or anyone else's.

"This is where _we_ wanted sit, bastard," he snapped back.

"Don't lump me in with you, Jean," someone said with a calm voice. Immediately Jean's face softened a bit.

"Sorry, Marco," Jean apologized.

Marco. I didn't notice him on the far side of the group until he spoke. I knew Marco pretty well, and he didn't really care where he would be sitting unless it was somewhere either gross where no one would want to sit, or dangerous, like in the middle of the highway or in a chemical bath. Sometimes I feel like Marco is the only person who can keep Jean in line. Not even his mother can really control him anymore.

I remember when we were young, in the last year of junior high school. Jean was yelling at me and I was on the ground with a bruise on my arm. What had happened was that I had tripped and Jean had almost tripped over me when we were leaving school. He told me to watch it, but his mother pulled over in the driveway of the school and grabbed Jean by the ear and started to scream at him in front of everyone. I remember that she slapped him in the back of the head and the next day when I opened my locker, I found an apology note. Jean was distant and pissy to everyone who talked to him the rest of that day.

But I guess that's not the case anymore. Jean's mother was getting old. Jean was taller than her now and she wasn't the spring chicken she used to be. How did I know? She once came to school to give Jean his lunch that he had forgotten, and he totally went off. It was crazy. I swear, even Mikasa got big eyed, and pretty much nothing seems to phase her. Not even what was happening now.

"Jean, just leave us alone, alright?" she said. I could hear her impatience in her voice. He puts his hands on his hips and I knew he wasn't going to yell at her. She was Mikasa. The girl he liked. I could tell that this wasn't getting him anywhere with making her even think of falling for him, other than in a mocking sense.

"Now, Mikasa," he started off, "There's no need to go off at me. You can stay, but Arlert and Yeager need to leave."

I watched as Mikasa got up and grabbed Jean's collar, making him raise to the tip of his toes. She was surprisingly strong. I knew that from experience. "Go away," she said. Her voice was deep and shaky, like she was trying to hold back a yell or outburst. That's when she dropped her arms and Jean stumbled back. He looked me in the eye from the distance and I knew he was blaming me for it. I didn't know why he kept trying to blame me for something he started, but no matter what, Mikasa would never kick my ass unless I pissed her off so bad that she had to, or her head would explode from rage.

Then Jean and his "gang" left. Except for Marco. "Sorry about that," he apologized, "Jean is… just like that. You get it, right?"

Armin poked his head in and said, "Marco, there's nothing to apologize for. You didn't do anything wrong, and well, Jean is Jean. But thanks." And with that, Marco left.

The rest of the day was sort of a daze. All that was going on was handing out goodies and thanking our teachers. An assembly, and then all of us seniors gathered at the end of school before the lower grades. As usual, we would sing some stupid inspirational song like every group of seniors would do every single graduation ceremony. I didn't understand why so many girls were in tears. It was just a dumb ceremony. It wasn't like them and their friends would never talk again. I wanted to yell at them, "Quit your crying. Ever heard of phones, you over reacting freaks?"

When the principal, Mr. Shadis, quieted everyone in the gym down (without a microphone), the music teacher announced our song and we started singing. It was that stupid dinosaur song "If we hold on together" or something like that. I mouthed the lyrics and had my arms folded the entire time while standing casually with an irritated look on my face.

When it was finally over, the bell rang signally ending of the final school day and I immediately walked away and grabbed my backpack before anyone would notice I was gone before we were being excused. I kept looking back to see if Shadis was following me when I felt myself run into something.

"Watch it," I heard someone say. Their voice was angry and rasped. I turned around and saw a short dude standing in front of me. He had dark hair that I couldn't tell if it was black or a really dark brown. His eyes were narrow and angry looking. I couldn't tell his age, but he looked pretty old. But how could someone his age be _that_ short? I didn't care. I straightened out my shirt and pushed him over to the side out of my way.

"'Watch it,' yourself," I told him. I felt a tight grip on my arm and the man pulled me to his own height.

"Shut up. Learn some manners. Even though I'm shorter than you, I'll always be higher than you in the economy. And by the looks of it, once you leave this school, you'll be part of this frickin' economy, too," he snapped at me.

I backed up and snapped my arm away from his. I said, "Yeah, whatever. Like you even have a _serious_ job."

The man looked at me with disgust at first. After a short while, he gave me a smirk and said, "Why don't you come and watch the presentation fo-"

"Shut up already, short stack," I interrupted, "I've got my _own_ plans. I didn't even go to college yet, genius. And apparently, if the job you're offering is so sophisticated and high-end, I'd only expect the best of the best to be able to get a job there."

Walking away, I didn't even bother to listen to whatever that midget had to say. I didn't even know him and he was treating me not only like a dumbass little kid, but also as someone who was _supposed_ to be _so very impressive._ Stupid. How can you expect high levels of greatness from a high school kid? I wasn't a high school kid anymore.

I stepped off of school property. My foot dropped firmly against the grass of the field on the side of the school. It didn't belong to the school. It was a public field. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped at the feeling.

"We're not kids anymore, huh?" Armin asked with a small smile on his face.

"You just turned eighteen. I'd consider you a kid."

"Seven months ago! You just turned nineteen, you hold back."

"'Hold back?' Excuse me, Armin, I'm a straight B student. I'm early born."

I had to say something and pretend to be offended. I made a face of despair and sadness and said, "You don't know your own best friend's birthday? Is that why you didn't come to my party?"

He laughed and we played around back and forth until Mikasa arrived. Then we started to walk home. The entire night we hung out, I didn't talk about that strange man. How could I? It was such a fun night. I couldn't ruin it by saying something stupid.

By talking about that stupid man.


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up the next morning groggily doing everyday things. I guess it was because Mikasa, Armin and I stayed up so late doing… something. It was like I was hungover or something. I walked to the kitchen, hunched over and shoulders folded inward like an old man without a cane, but faster, and opened the cupboard, picking out a probably expired Keurig cup of hot chocolate. I would grow up and leave things behind, but hot cocoa would not be one of those things. It was too good to forget.

I put it in the Keurig machine and a coffee filter that was sticking out of the machine every which way because I was too lazy to trim it off. I added water to the water tank and put my old green mug under the liquid dispenser, watching the hot chocolate pour out into it once I had pressed the button to start. Not giving the mug any time to cool off, I grabbed the hot cup and could swear that I cooled the beverage with my tears of pain.

I sipped the hot chocolate, coughing and wheezing and once spitting the beverage back into the cup. "Eren, don't do that. Backwash is gross," Mikasa tells me sternly, pulling open the curtain. I looked around the living room and realized that we had slept here on the ground.

"Where's dad?" I asked.

"Dr. Yeager? He's on a business trip. He's been gone for a couple of days now," Mikasa replied calmly.

"Oh yeah…" I muttered to myself. I had completely forgotten that. Dad went on and off of business trips. That was normal…

"What about mom?" I proceeded to ask.

"Carla? Doesn't she work as a server at a 24 hour restaurant down the street?" my best female friend questioned me. "Why are you so _out of it_?"

I didn't say anything after that. I knew that I would just make matters worse by doing that. Mikasa was already probably getting annoyed by stupidity. Of course, neither one of my parents were home. Mom always took the night shift and then spent until lunch doing that, then came home, and slept. Both of my parents had weird work hours.

Armin came into the house with a few papers in his hands. I had completely forgotten that he had come to my house in the first place and barely even noticed that he left in the morning.

"Hey, snap out of your daze," he told me. "I found us some jobs we could do. We can't keep relying on our parents and guardians forever, you know." I felt his stare go straight to me. I nearly shook the ground when I jumped up and slammed my hand on the table about to say something, but the shock sent my hot chocolate to my pants. I jumped back in pain from the hot chocolate and stepped back once more as the cup shattered on the ground. I was more upset at Armin than the breaking of my old mug. It didn't have any sentimental value I supposed.

"Frickin' hell!" I groaned. I stepped back observing the mess. "What are you doing, looking at me!?" I managed to get at Armin.

"Well, you're the only who hasn't had at least a half-legit job. I did tutoring to little kids and Mikasa solicited embroidery pieces," Armin said, defensive, and trying to sound like he wasn't guilty of anything.

I sighed thinking of something to say back. "Isn't soliciting things illegal?" I ask cleverly.

Armin shrugged. "The word 'solicit' doesn't mean exactly that it's illegal. It might be? But she was a kid, so it doesn't matter. It's like selling lemonade when you were a little kid," he said.

"Don't you need to, like, get a health examination for that and a permit?" I quickly countered.

"Well, that's food," my friend retorted.

"Well, that's probably illegal," I replied.

We all stopped talking right then. I still realized that I was standing in a puddle of hot cocoa and that the stuff was still burning against my skin. Sometimes we fought over the stupidest things. And things ended up shitty. Always.

I was the first to break the silence. "Well, I'll clean this up and see what this damn job opportunity is all about." I slowly dropped to my knees and picked up the pieces of the green mug. Even though there was probably a million others just like it, I missed it already. I guess I did care about it. I put all the pieces on the counter and hoped to salvage it in some way. I was about to clean up the hot chocolate but, Armin was already at it, laying paper towels on the ground and throwing away sopping wet ones. Mikasa tossed to me a brown towel.

She said calmly, "Go clean yourself up. We'll take care of the rest of the mess, alright?"

I nodded and turned the corners of my lips up a bit. "Yeah, thanks," I replied. My best friends always came through.

I had changed into a pair of black basketball shorts and a grey t-shirt with a few green graphics on the front of neatly placed triangles. I think it was from my father's business trip to Hawaii. Why the hell would he buy a shirt from a college, though? It was stupid, but I wasn't complaining. It was still a comfortable shirt. I went back to the kitchen and Armin had another cup of hot cocoa on the counter for me. He was sipping from his own hot chocolate in a black mug and Mikasa had one too in a cup from Legoland.

I walked to grab a high spinning stool and carried it to the table and set it down. I picked up my other green mug filled with the freshly made beverage and sipped it a bit. I sat down on the stool and put my mug down. "So, about this job… What is it?" I asked. Armin paused for a bit, looking at the flyer.

"Uh, well, the job is at a hotel. Five star, high class place. It's accepting people now in preparation for the summer craze of people. The process is simple. All we have to do is apply online or submit a filled out application form that we print and they'll tell us if we move on to the interview or not," he explained.

I shrugged. "Sounds simple. What kind of benefits do we get for working there?" I asked. If I was going to work, I needed to know what kind of benefits I'll get besides money. I hoped that we could get something like reduced room costs in their hotel or admittance to some sort of food bar. I looked at Armin and he looked at the flyer, his eyes gliding from one side of the paper to the other and back, like he was desperately trying to find the part where we get benefits for working besides money.

"Money is the benefit, Eren," Mikasa said, making Armin and I jump. Her voice sounded painfully brutal and she continued to state, "Well, I don't know about the two of you but I would like this job." She had calmed down quite a bit in a short time. I supposed that was part of her personality… Hot and cold.

I took a long sip of my beverage and then put the mug down on the table. "Well, if Mikasa's doing this stupid job, so am I," I said looking at Armin. I could swear I caught a glimpse of Mikasa's little smile I couldn't deny that I really appreciated. She had her fair share of darkness in the past and to know that she still had hope and enough happiness to still smile, it made me appreciate a lot of things.

Armin's face light up and he said, "I'm in, too. I wouldn't want you guys to get to work there without me." He looked towards me and added jokingly, "And Eren, you shouldn't need to worry. Your mom's a waitress, so you basically have a waiter's skills in your genes."

I laughed and commented, "I'm not as graceful as my mom or even that attractive."

"Yeah, your mom's pretty hot," Mikasa said with a chuckle in her voice. My blond friend began to crack up and set his mug down as not to drop it.

My face turned red and I couldn't help but laugh myself and said defensively, "That's not what I meant!" We all sat there like idiots laughing until we couldn't breathe. Finally, when we calmed ourselves, I waved for everyone to follow me to the work room. That's where the only computer in the house was. A lot of other people had laptops but nope, not me. My parents didn't want me rotting in front of one my whole life. But they promised to get one for Mikasa and I to share after graduating and I'd say that it's a laptop well deserved.

We all walked up the stairs and to the left room. Like kids, we all sat on the one big rolling chair. Luckily, we all fit (but barely) and I logged onto my account on the Mac. I went into the browser and Armin took it from there, going to the main website and opening a .pdf file of the application form, explaining that he felt that going to submit the form in person would give a better impression of themselves. He printed three forms out and we went downstairs to hear someone unlocking the front door.

I set the application form down and looked through the peephole. "It's mom," I said. I swung open the door and then unlocked the screen door for mom. She had a large green bag over her shoulder.

"Thanks, Eren," she said as she stepped in. She took off her shoes and put them on the wooden shelf near the entrance. "Oh, hi, Armin!" she said cheerfully. Armin waved. "It's good to see you all," mom continued. She then proceeded to give me the most congratulating hug I've ever felt. I hugged her, too. Mikasa and Armin also joined in.

"I'm so proud of you all! You guys are all grown up now, graduating high school, and all," mom told us.

Armin looked at the bag and said thoughtfully, "Mrs. Yeager, I can help you with your bag." Mom shook her head and pulled the bag off of her shoulder.

"It's alright. It's gifts for you guys for officially graduating," she said. She handed me the bag and then began walking to the stairs saying, "You guys have fun. And don't break anything, alright?" We all nodded.

"So, open gifts first of do the application?" I asked.

"I choose gifts," Mikasa said.

Armin nodded in agreement. I put the bag on the ground and said, "Alright." I sat down on the ground right where I was, and so did my friends.

When I started to take everything out of the bag, I noticed the laptop Mikasa and I were promised, and three cards. Of course, she got something for my best dude friend, Armin. Not only was he my best childhood friend, he was like family. I pushed the empty bag to the side and handed everyone's cards out. We silently opened them and read. Mine read:

 _Dear Eren,_

 _Congratulations, son! You've graduated high school and are an official adult._

 _I am so very proud of you and your accomplishments._

 _I know that you will always pull through hard times and be very successful in college._

 _You've persevered so much in your life and made really good friends by choice or not, and we trust that you'll make more good choices in life. You grew up so fast, too. I'll definitely miss my baby boy._

 _Eren, please stay safe in college and when you're done, feel free to bring home a girl. (NO PRESSURE ^_^)_

 _It's up to you, sweetheart. The rest of your life and what you do with it is in your hands._

 _Love,_

 _Mom 3_

It was short, but it sure as hell meant a lot. I looked up from my card and Armin was staring at me like I was a weirdo. "What!?" I yelled.

"You're blushing," he replied, a mischievous grin on his face.

I practically shoved the card in his face and he read it, too. He started chuckling and asked, _kind_ of girl are you bringing back from college? White girl, black girl, asian, latino? I've dated a latino girl before, it wasn't that bad."

I was in shock.

"Just kidding. I've still got my v-card for dating, dude," Armin laughed. It slowly died off, having admitted he had never gotten a date. I couldn't laugh because I hadn't either. Mikasa read the card as well and kind of backed away. I could tell she was uncomfortable. I had to admit that I felt the same way. Just a little bit.

Mikasa, Armin and I were sitting at the table filling out the form asking us about school information, age, military employment, that type of stuff. It was pretty straight forward and I had a lot of not applicables in spaces, luckily, none of that meant bad. I hadn't been convicted of any crime besides sucking ass in the dating market. I wrote for unlisted skills that my mother is in fact a waitress and I've heard about what it takes to be a waiter or waitress, what it takes to be a server, or entertaining and good host. I also wrote that I was good with people in a sense that I can handle my temper fairly well when dealing with other people (which was sort of a lie) and am good at making people feel comfortable in most environments.

The entire thing was fairly simple and by the time I was done, it was only about an hour that I'd been working on it. Quality work was the best type of work to get hired so I took extra time to make my handwriting the neatest it could be. Armin finished and so did Mikasa. Checking the time, Armin said, "Well, I'd better go before papa gets worried about me…" He then proceeded to say, "We'll turn this applications in tomorrow, okay?" Mikasa and I agreed and waved to Armin, goodbye while he left our home.

It was around one o'clock, so I get why Armin had to leave. He hadn't seen his grandpa in about a day and a half now. Hopefully Armin remembered to tell his old man's old man that he would be sleeping over. I walked back to the table and Mikasa followed. I washed our cups and put them in the drying rack. Then I started to talk to Mikasa.

"We haven't received any college acceptance forms yet," I said. She shook her head.

"Don't worry about it… We just graduated high school. It's not an instant transition, I'm sure," she told me.

I shrugged. I guess I had to agree with her on that. It was true.

Mom came down the stairs in a red spaghetti strap dress over a white collared shirt. I'd have to admit that her style was sort of unique, but still expressed her age pretty well. I'd also have to admit that I understood fashion more than I understood Call of Duty. Pretty sad.

"Oh, what is that?" she asked, pointing to the applications.

"They're application forms for a job. Armin's trying to get in, too. We're gonna turn them in tomorrow," I explained. Mikasa nodded.

Mom's face turned stern. "You better not be trying to get into the military!" she yelled.

"No, no, no, no, no! It's a job at a hotel!" I said.

"Which one!?"

I stopped. I didn't know what it was called. I hadn't asked Armin which one.

"And why is that cup in pieces!?"

"I-I can explain!" I said loudly.

I looked at the job application form and read the top. _Survey Corps…_ It was a weird name.

"Firstly, it's called 'Survey Corps,' secondly, I-"

"'Survey Corps?' You're trying to get into 'Survey Corps?'" mom cut me off.

"Yes…?" I answered.

"That's a high class hotel. It was founded by a man from the marine corps who had always dreamt of having his own business and a hotel in high demand from the public, voila! Survey Corps was built. And a lot of big name people visit Survey Corps and a lot of amazing people work there, like Erwin Smith and Mike Zacharias. My son is so ambitious!" she cried, pulling me into a tight hug. "Oh, good luck, sweetie! You, too, Mikasa!" But suddenly, she pinched my ear and asked, "But why in the world is that mug in pieces?"

"It's because he was startled," Mikasa lied. "A loud noise from the t.v. made his drop the cup." She tended to do stuff like this… Protecting and babying me from little things.

"I just thought I could salvage it…" I added to the end, explaining why I hadn't disposed of it.

"Oh, well, find somewhere safe to put it before someone gets hurt," mom said firmly. I nodded and put it in a plastic bag and in a cabinet with other countless mugs.

"Now, tell me what you two want to major in," mom commanded.

I didn't know. So I let Mikasa go first. She sounded a bit hesitant as she said she was thinking about kinesiology and rehabilitation science or asian studies. When I was told to say what I wanted to do, I shrugged and said I might major in pharmacies.

"Eren, why would you want to major in pharmacies? I don't even think that's a major," mom yelled at me.

"Look, I don't know what I want to do with my life," I said defensively.

"Well, maybe you can work at Survey Corps until your knees no longer work assuming you'll get the job. But no son of mine will work at a hotel until he's in his sixties!"

I shrugged again. I didn't know.

The day ended well. I ate dinner, took a shower, watched television and headed off to bed. I dropped onto my bed and picked up my phone from my desk where it was connected to the charger. I pressed the home button and clicked in my password. I texted Armin and Mikasa in a group chat for a while, typing up jokes and then saying goodnight. Then Armin texted Mikasa and I:

so when are we going to drop off the papers tom.

like 12 maybe?

Mikasa texted:

Sure.

I paused. That's around the time mom comes home from work.

Sounds good

That was all I typed. I hoped mom wouldn't mind.


End file.
